Hong Kong's re-exports continued to grow strongly in April, taking the total value for the first four months of the year to $358.6 billion, 10 per cent higher than the same period last year.
External trade figures released by the Census and Statistics Department yesterday showed re-exports grew 17 per cent in value during April to $98.9 billion.
By comparison, the value of domestic exports grew by a far slower 1.8 per cent, to $17.2 billion, while imports rose 8.4 per cent to $133 billion.
Taken over the first four months, the value of domestic exports slipped 4 per cent to $64.7 billion, a drop blamed on the territory's particularly weak export performance in March. Hong Kong's fastest growing market for re-exports in the first quarter was Japan, where the figure by value jumped 31 per cent after a 27 per cent rise in April.
The next fastest growth area during the quarter was to France and Britain, while re-exports to China grew 13 per cent by value. By category, the biggest increases during the quarter were seen in re-exports of office machines and automatic data processing machines, which jumped by 26 per cent or $4.4 billion.
The next biggest rise was recorded in electrical machinery, appliances, and electrical parts, which rose by 18 per cent or $5.8 billion.